ComplaintsforGuardian Transfer & Storage Inc.

• Initial Complaint

  04/10/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  In April 21 we agreed a contract with Guardian for a door to door service for our goods to be shipped to Portugal. The amount, $29 204. 07, was stated in writing for the service with the only possible extra cost being import duties on our motorcycle ( not part of the dispute). The agents for Guardian( unknown to us) made a mess of the Portuguese end and refused to deliver our goods until an extra $5000( thereabouts) was paid to them directly, not through Guardian as Guardian refused to intervene or assist in this matter despite repeated requests from us. We had no knowledge of this agent,and had no agreement with them. In the end we had to pay the $5000 in order to avoid further charges and get our furniture back. Guardian has refused to assist us and insist that this matter has nothing to do with them.

  

  Business response

  09/11/2021

  Thank-you for the opertunity to respond to this complaint.

  In the moving industry it is common and most often necessary to use a third party to arrange destination services for international moves. We rely on their networks to provide this service abroad.

  In the case of Mr and Mrs **** the additional charges were due to problems  with customs clearance and the fact Portuguese customs put a hold on their goods. These problems are unforeseen as customs has the authority to hold and or inspect any shipment entering the country.  This was the case with the **** relocation.

  There was a substantial amount of farm equipment included in the shipment and I suspect that is what raised flags with customs.

  In these situations we are at customs disposal and can only follow their demands.

  It is unfortunate the ****** shipment was delayed at destination and the relocation agent there did everything they could  to keep charges related to the delay as low as possible.

  After reviewing the e-mail exchanges I can see the additional charges are completely due delays by Portuguese customs.

  Unfortunately this hold up was unforeseen and not something that would have been anticipated by our company.

   

  If u have further questions regarding this matter please contact me.

   

   

   

  ***** *******

  General Manager

   

  Guardian Transfer

  210 Joseph Zatsman Drive, Dartmouth, N.S., B3B 1P4

  Phone 902-435-2824

  ******* *****************************

  Customer response

  10/11/2021

   I am rejecting this response because:
  Firstly this response does not address the extra shipping cost of 1000 euros at the Portugeuese end ' due to being unable to access our location with the container lorry'. We were informed of this two days before our shipment left Canada.  We had sent details of access to our Portuguese location several weeks before the goods were shipped and no issues of access were mentioned until the last minute. We subsequently took video of an articulated HGV lorry easily accessing said location. This is either incompetence or dishonesty in order to obtain more money.

  Secondly we were told by Guardian that the service was door to door. There was never any mention that we would have to deal directly with their agents. The goods were scheduled to arrive 29th of May. When we got to Portugal we received an email from a company called Global who informed us our goods would not arrive until June 30th. We questioned this and were told this was correct. We received another email on the 7th June to say they were surprised to learn our goods had actualy arrived on the 6th of June and they needed our original paperwork asap, although they already had copies of all the relevant information. The paper work arrived in their office on the 9th June ( via express courier). I am unsure as to why no one knew of the location and arrival schedule of the ship with our containers. I would expect that when dealing with time sensitive matters like customs clearance and possible demurrage charges that knowing the scheduling of the shipping companies would be considered a necessity in order to efficiently discharge their duties.

  Thirdly a third company called ****** ( apparently another agent for Guardian of whom we had no knowledge) then got involved and informed ****** that we had to pay another 2395 euros in order to have our goods released by them. We contacted Guardian to ask for assistance and received no help and after having had to pay thousands extra to have our goods released to us, they proceeded to ingnore any future emails. We then called Guardian to speak to the manager, **** ********, and were told that it was not their problem.

  The attached email response from our contact at Guardian was one of the last responses we received in relation to the extra charges.We do have a chain of emails regarding this and can submit them if necessary.

  The whole process has been at best incompetent and at worst dishonest.

  We are not asking for a huge amount of compensation for stress or our wasted time, simply the extra costs that we have incurred that we do not believe are fair or justified.

  In addition to the above we have had to submit an insurance claim for extensive damages to our goods. We have over $6000 of damage, some of which was clearly done prior to being shipped from Canada. The whole preocess has been expensive, stressful and has wasted a huge amount of our time.

   

  
  

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